Working as a Molecular Biologist at the University of Maryland, Quimby had always had a strong interest in creative avenues. “As a child my mother took me to museums and plays, instilling in me a life-long love of the arts,” she recalls “I think that I had always wanted to be an artist.” Boots (her father’s twist on her middle name Booth) had taken some art classes in public school. “I had a good art teacher in Middle school but in High School it was just me and a bunch of football players,” she laments. She pursued a scientific career, earning a PhD at Emory University and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of health. It was reading a book — Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert, that set her on a path of self-learning to be a painter.
In 2017 Boots and her husband left the DC area and moved to their home in Chatham County with plenty of natural beauty and a pond full of dragonflies. She took an administrative position at UNC and began working seriously in her Dragonfly Pond Studio on her own style of acrylic painting.
Boots’ realistic paintings are inspired by the nature around her. “I get real satisfaction in capturing nature as close to what I see as possible,” she explains. So, the animals and plants that she paints are completely recognizable but a bit stylized. “Every now and then, I do something wonky,” she quips, referring to sort of abstract expressionist works done with a toothbrush.
“I sign my paintings BBII in memory of my mother and because my first two initials are B as well,” she explains. She offers paintings and cards. Her studio is open by appointment throughout the year
I hope that people who see my paintings feel my appreciation for the beauty around us all. More information about Boots Quimby is on her Chatham Artist’s Guild gallery page.
